RELATING TO FUR-SEALS AND SEALSKIN INDUSTRY. 377 



The harems on the Pribilof Islands have at all times varied very much 

 in size. In the years when I was on the islands, be- 

 tween 1S74 and 1887, it was always possible to find in- 

 dividual harems with 50 or perhaps 80 females, while others would only 

 have four or five females, notwithstanding the average harem would, per- 

 haps, contain from 15 to 30 females. Large harems, though in smaller 

 numbers, continued to exist even in the years 1885 and to 1887, when, 

 as I have already stated in a former affidavit, the number of females 

 began to decrease. 



While I was on the Islands there was no such thing known as disturb- 

 in g the breeders or stampeding the rookeries. The herd c . ,. , 



. & . i .» Stampeding and 



is driven from the rookery, is kept away from filth as driving over putrid 

 much as possible, for the reason that the skins which bofhes - 

 are taken, if clean, take salt better, cure in better condition, and bring 

 better prices. Filth, grease, and oil make skins come out of kench flat, 

 and such skins are classed as low when sold. Mud spoils the salt for 

 quick work ; so the cleaner the skins are the better. As the rejected 

 seals are only to be got away from the killing ground the quickest way 

 to the sea is the route chosen, and they often pass over decaying car- 

 casses, but not of necessity, as they are allowed to choose their own gait 

 and route to the sea. They do not seem to object to this anymore than 

 to the filth caused by the excrement and decaying placentas on the 

 breeding grounds. 



I was on the Commander Islands in 1891 as Agent of the Russian 

 Sealskin Company. I never heard any one state that Barren and sterile 

 barren females (I mean females without young) were no- females. 

 ticed there and I don't believe that any person whose opinion would be 

 entitled to consideration noticed this fact. It soon would have become 

 a matter of common knowledge on the Islands if there had been any 

 number of adult females without young. The only sure way to deter- 

 mine whether an adult female is banen is to examine her as to whether 

 she is giving milk or dry. As the young seals do not follow the mother 

 continuously, the fact of seeing females without pups with them does 

 not prove that they have not one somewhere on the breeding grounds, 

 and no person having any knowledge of rookery life could draw such 

 an inference and claim that the females were therefore barren. 



While on the Pribilof Islands I don't know that I ever saw a sterile 

 female seal. It is impossible to recognize the same seal from year to 

 year unless as in the case of a few old bulls which have large scars, a 

 torn lip, a white blind eye, the nose split, or same unnatural mark. 

 And although I have seen old females without milk, very fat, associating 

 with the young males, I could not say that they had not been fertilized, 

 and not having an offspring to care for were associating with the males 

 until the season arrived for the herd to leave. At one time the sug- 

 gestion was made that it would be a good plan to kill these females. 

 I denied that it w r as possible for any one to know that they would not 

 bear young, and that if the killing of one female was authorized it 

 would open the way to do great injury to the herd. For, when it be- 

 came desirable to market a large number of skius, the clubber would 

 see large numbers of females unfit for breeding. 



It is difficult to discover fresh excrement on the rookeries, for the 

 seals' flippers soon wipe out the evidence looked for. 

 Still I have often seen it. In color it is orange, light Exerement - 

 yellow to almost colorless, and in consistency soft, almost liquid. At 

 ^imes it is very offensive, and at others nearly odorless. But the soil 



